Math Wizard is a prototype designed to provide blind and visually impaired (BVI) kids an accessible platform for math practice. Problems ranging from basic math operations to basic algebra should be challenging, but not require the use of pen and paper. The prototype's accessibility includes considerations for large text, colorblindness, and user-friendly screen contrasts.
Skills: Interface and Interaction Design, User Research, Contextual Inquiry, Prototyping
Collaborators: Anna Hazelwood, Ma'kiah Holliday, and Qian (Esther) Liu

Strategy

The process must always keep accessibility in mind. We conducted literature reviews and interviews to understand the needs and concerns of end users. While our initial goal is to design an app for BVI kids, we were unable to reach out to the actual target audience because of the potential risks. Instead, we decided to conduct multiple interviews with parents, teachers of the visually impaired (TVIs), and other professionals in the field.
We identified 5 major milestones to help guide project management:
  1. Literature Review
  2. User Research
  3. Personas
  4. Prototyping
  5. User Evaluation

Contextual Inquiry

We interviewed parents and professionals from the community. Participants included representatives from the American Printing House for the Blind, New York State School for the Blind, and New York City Department of Education. Results from this interview informed our contextual inquiry.
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Inclusive Age Range
  • Some teachers have pointed out that some high school students have trouble learning some basic math concepts
Counting After 20
  • ​For younger BVI kids, numbers after 20 are harder to grasp conceptually. Comparing the size of a car to a bus, for example, is hard to determine. It is also easier to illustrate 50 oranges compared to having them touch 50 oranges on a table. 
Motivation is Key!
  • BVI children have trouble with technology itself. We need to be able to motivate the children to learn and use the app as well as understand its value.
Parental Guidance
  • Parents are not as involved because of the learning barrier. It is not as easy to teach/follow a child’s progress when parents do not understand some foreign tools themselves (Braille, Nemeth Math)
To Each Their Own
  • Each learning experience varies per individual based on the available technology. They are less likely to be studying in groups, but would love to be able to participate in peer activities.

"Design a game that is accessible, not an accessible game."

Personas

BVI users do not want to feel alienated from their sighted peers -- they want to be able to play what others are playing and not have apps specifically catered to their needs. With that, we decided to create two primary personas. We also created 3 secondary personas to represent users who may be interested in the app.

Primary


​Joey is an 8 year old, 3rd grade student of the who was born blind. He is not very interested with school and find learning new things frustrating, but he does love to play and make friends. He especially likes listening to music, playing with apps with a lot of sounds, and getting prizes for winning. He has a short attention span, not very good with iPhones, and needs a lot of practice in math.


​Tiffany is a 6 year old 1st grade student of Trinity School in New York City. She loves to learn and read and is very advanced in her classes. She likes to play games but does not get a lot of opportunity to do so because her parents want her to study. She knows how to use an iPhone fairly well and is already at the multiplication level.

Secondary


​Monica is a 12 year old, 7th grade student who lost her vision when she was 6 years old. She is very organized, artistic, and social but fears that she may lag behind her sighted friends. She is interested in practicing her math skills on her spare time because she wants to be a teacher someday. She is an average iPhone user with a high attention span. She is currently struggling a bit with division.


​Lydia is a teacher of the blind and visually impaired at Albany. She is passionate about her students and would love to find tools that can help them succeed. She struggles finding one that is easy enough for the kids to learn because most of her kids almost always has technology issues.



Peter is a single father to three children, one of whom is blind. He has a very demanding career as an accountant and finds himself too busy to help and spend time with his kids. He would like to be able to help his kids succeed and be there for them.

Low-Fidelity Prototype

We gathered to create rough drafts of important pages and interactions for the prototype. We provide different sign up/log in options for students or guardians (teachers/parents), a report page, and different chapters for gameplay.

High-Fidelity Prototype

We have made the following adjustments on the Lo-Fi prototype based on suggestions from peers as well as some additional research:
  • Add an onboarding process for ease-of-use
  • Add a background story for user motivation
  • Explored different color palettes that are typically used in apps for kids
  • Vibrant but not where it becomes distracting
  • Checking contrast throughout the entire process for colorblindness
  • Fonts must be readable and sizes must be large enough to satisfy large print qualifications

*Note: Because this is only a prototype, we cannot include accessibility requirements such as voiceover. However, we designed the game so that each button is readable by itself and no important information is blended into the background. Most of the graphics present in game were developed by team member. Some, however, were downloaded for free from Google’s vector stock images.

UX in Motion

The team referred to The 12 Principles of UX in Motion to provide animations that best present content to the user.


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Dimensionality

​Origami dimensionality was used in the motion of the how-to page to create a layering feel


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​Overlay

Seamlessly added notifications and prompts using Figma’s amazing overlay functions



Obscuration

Highlight more important parts of the screen by putting a darker background behind it and drawing the user's attention to the main piece of information



​Parenting

Direct parenting is used by adding a progress bar in each level at the bottom of the screen to help decrease cognitive load



​Easing

Slow transition from the main report page to the detailed page to provide a sense of continuity

User Testing

Due to the limited time frame and COVID-19 restrictions, only minimal user testing was completed. The notes shared below are from the participants' personal feedback and were reviewed by them before posting.
Review by a sighted 9-year old boy who is doing advanced math. His math level at the time of testing is high school geometry. He is in 3rd grade and is doing equivalent fractions in school. 
  • It’s interesting that the people in the graphics do not have eyes - it makes it more special!
  • The colors and graphics were nice and inviting
  • The number of questions is fair (he was curious on how to pass a level and how many questions he needed to finish per level)
  • This would have helped when I was learning basic math
  • The story is good. I liked it. If it didn’t have a story, I would not be interested
  • I would have liked to see the boss and what I would need to do to win. Do I fight the boss? Or just keep answering questions?
  • The question type does not matter to me​
Review by a sighted 7-year old girl who is doing advanced math. Her math level at the time of testing is pre-algebra. She is in 1st grade and is doing subtraction in school.
  • It’s cool!
  • I really liked the drawings and colors
  • I liked the Addition forest and all the worlds that were made
  • It gives you an adventure to find Merlin and learn different math topics so I like it
  • I wanted to see some unicorns and fairies